The Nebraska Research Network in Functional Genomics has two major components, the undergraduate campuses located throughout the State and the research campuses located in Omaha and Lincoln. On the undergraduate campuses, INBRE will support 24 faculty directed research projects. This support includes funding for summer salaries, release time during the academic year, supplies, major items of equipment and travel to scientific meetings. INBRE will support 26 undergraduate INBRE Scholars (3 per campus) who are conducting research on the undergraduate campuses. This Scholars program is a two year commitment and is the major component of our successful effort to develop a pipeline of Nebraska students into biomedical research and the health professions. Two major components of the program are on the research campuses. INBRE will provide significant funding for the support of graduate student stipends for former INBRE Scholar enrolled in PhD programs on any of the research campuses. The second component is the support for multi-user core laboratories located on the training campuses and at UNO. The bioinformatics core has been reorganized consolidated at UNO. This consolidation is based on the exceptional progress that UNO has made in bioinformatics. Individual investigators on the both the undergraduate and research campuses as well as investigators using the proteomics and genomics cores have developed significant interactions with the UNO Bioinformatics core and rely on them for bioinformatics support and data management. A structural proteomics core facility at Creighton University Medical Center and a Mass Spec/proteomics core facility at UNMC will be partially supported. A functional genomics core facility at UNMC will continue to receive support. A new imaging core imaging has been established at CUMC, The scientific themes for the research network are cell signaling, infectious disease, and structural biology and biophysics. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE (provided by applicant): This application is in response to PAR-08-150, IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence. The application represents a collaborative effort to sponsor health related research at undergraduate institutions in Nebraska and increase the research capacity at three research universities, two of which are colleges of medicine.